REI Base Camp 4 Tent

We just bought this REI Base Camp 4 tent. After camping for a couple of years in my smaller Half Dome 2 (which still looks great after six summers of use) Natalie convinced me of the benefits of having more space. In this tent we each have a door, as before, but have the space to keep our backpacks inside. The extra room is also nice to move blankets out of the way, if they get too hot. There’s hardly room for that in a 2-person tent. The 5 feet of headroom also make moving around and getting dressed a lot easier.

The included rainfly creates a large vestibule on one side of the tent and a smaller one on the other, handy for shoes and bins of camping gear. The rainfly will fit over the tent in either orientation, so you can choose which end gets the larger vestibule (and window).

We took it for a test camp the other day and really liked it. It’s very roomy, and pockets and gear loops abound. Set-up takes about 15 minutes including the rainfly.